BTW, will your search for exotica be confined to animal meat? On the plant side there's that SE Asian "stink bean", and durian, and then there's a load of more or less exotic fungi. Then there's some fermented products, including exotic kimchees, and strange cheeses, and stuff like natto....

If you're not sticking to mammals, a quick pass through the seafood section at a couple of good Asian markets will allow you to cut a swath across several phyla and classes. A stop off at a Oaxacan place for some chili crickets and you're good to go!

"If you're not sticking to mammals, a quick pass through the seafood section at a couple of good Asian markets …" One of our favorite Asian markets, especially to take visitors to, is Hawaii Supermarket in San Gabriel (Valley and Del Mar). Yes, they have a very comprehensive seafood section, but their frozen meats range into exotica most of us aren't prepared to deal with, including fox and armadillo. Okay, fox IS on the menu at one Vietnamese restaurant we've been to, but armadillo?? Mrs. O's theory is that some Vietnamese immigrants down in Texas developed a taste for road kill, a class in which the armadillo is overrepresented in the Gulf states, but that seems unlikely. Of course, so does eating armadillo …